Gas"tric (?), a. [Gr. , , stomach: cf. F. gastrique.]
Of, pertaining to, or situated near, the stomach; as, the gastric artery.
Gastric digestion Physiol., the conversion of the albuminous portion of food in the stomach into soluble and diffusible products by the solvent action of gastric juice. -- Gastric fever Med., a fever attended with prominent gastric symptoms; -- a name applied to certain forms of typhoid fever; also, to catarrhal inflammation of the stomach attended with fever. -- Gastric juice Physiol., a thin, watery fluid, with an acid reaction, secreted by a peculiar set of glands contained in the mucous membrane of the stomach. It consists mainly of dilute hydrochloric acid and the ferment pepsin. It is the most important digestive fluid in the body, but acts only on proteid foods. -- Gastric remittent fever Med., a form of remittent fever with pronounced stomach symptoms.
© Webster 1913.